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Unwanted blending of colours Acrylics

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  • Member since
    April 2020
Unwanted blending of colours Acrylics
Posted by InquisitiveBinChicken on Sunday, April 12, 2020 5:52 PM

Hey everyone! I'm very new to modelling.

I recently tried to put a winter wash on a tank, but it didn't go well. I painted 3 base coats of dark green and the plan was to paint 2 thin coats of flat white on top (so that a little bit of green could be seen underneath). I was trying to replicate a late-war camo where supplies were scarce and winter camo didn't have as much coverage.

Unfortunately when I applied the white paint, it ended up blending with the green paint underneath, turning the tank spearmint green.

I use a brush to paint and use Tamiya acrylics. I thin them with water. The base coats had been applied at least one week prior, so they should have dried. I don't own an airbrush. If I wanted to achieve this kind of effect with a brush, what paints should I use?

Tags: acrylic , brush , camo , Winter
  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Western North Carolina
Posted by Tojo72 on Monday, April 13, 2020 3:05 PM
An enamel or lacquer flat clear barrier coat over the basecoat would have helped.Sounds like when you sloshed on your whitewash thinned with water on,it affected the basecoat.

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Monday, April 13, 2020 3:10 PM

I'm not a Tamiya acrylic expert, but nobody has responded so if I may toss out my 2 cents then maybe the bump will be seen by some regular Tamiya users.

InquisitiveBinChicken
The base coats had been applied at least one week prior, so they should have dried.

I agree, I'd think one week should have been adequate, but....

InquisitiveBinChicken
I thin them with water.

I don't know the answer but I'd be suspect of the water. I've only used X-20A. Folks seem to thin with lacquer thinner with outstanding results.

My thought process is below. Reading further is optional. Smile

If one searches for 'can tamiya acrylics be thinned with water', there is a lot of typical anecdotal crap (like this post of mine!) and no real answer to the question. When I ran across posts by names I recognize as knowing something,  the trend seems to be they don't recommend thinning with water.

I found a statement by Tamiya yesterday (which I can't find now, sorry) where they said one of the nice things about Tamiya acrylics is it can be thinned with water and you can use it to clean your airbrush. But for thinning we recommend X-20A thinner. (I paraphrased that) I couldn't figure out if they were saying it can be thinned with water or not.

It's my understanding that X-20A thinner is 91% ISO with touch of butanol which apparently serves as a drying retardant. The chemistry is above my pay grade, but I sure can't figure out how 91% ISO with a touch of butanol is somehow equivalent to water.

I hope someone with practical experience jumps in with a more definitive answer for you.

Edit: Tojo and I cross-posted. (I was unaware of his reply, so it looks like I ignored his but rather I didn't see it) I think his idea of a dissimilar barrier coat is excellent! Whatever caused the problem, I agree a barrier coat would most certainly prevented it. Yes

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Monday, April 13, 2020 3:20 PM

It's not workable to do a wash with the same paint and thinner as used for the base coat. Any amount of scrubbing will mess things up.

Tojo is right. Apply a barrier coat before doing that. 

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    May 2013
  • From: Indiana, USA
Posted by Greg on Monday, April 13, 2020 3:37 PM

GMorrison

It's not workable to do a wash with the same paint and thinner as used for the base coat. Any amount of scrubbing will mess things up.

Tojo is right. Apply a barrier coat before doing that. 

Tojo and Bill, you guys are spot on. I got caught up in the wording and failed to see the white coat for what it actually was intended to be, a wash (or maybe a heavy filter). I was looking at it as a color coat over a color coat. Duh.

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